


Carniv-All In

by dimmadangit



Category: Frozen (Disney Movies)
Genre: Carnival, Circus, Dorks, F/F, Romance, whichever cause I don’t know the difference
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-14
Updated: 2020-05-15
Packaged: 2021-03-03 02:20:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 10,946
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24187279
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dimmadangit/pseuds/dimmadangit
Summary: Anna goes to her first carnival and falls in love with the performances AND with the family of performers. And then, oops, develops a crush on one of them. Circus AU (‘cause why not), Elsanna, non-incest.
Relationships: Anna & Elsa (Disney), Anna/Elsa (Disney)
Comments: 1
Kudos: 17





	1. Chapter 1

Anna had never been to a carnival. Well, minus that one time that her friends took her to the circus that'd been set up in the Macy's parking lot in a single day. They told her not to count that, though, 'cause they had to evacuate the premises after some drunk carnies let the bumper cars off their tracks and tore through all the tents. No, she never had the real deal, but she also didn't think it was something she was totally missing out on. Her friend Tiana, however, had.

"It's like a coming of age thing."

"I didn't know we still had those as adults."

"Come onnnnn. It'll be fun! The lights, the performances, the decorations! I remember my first real carnival..." Anna wasn't convinced, truly. But Tiana's eyes lit up with a magic spark as she continued to speak in a way that made her forget about that parking lot circus for a minute.

"Okay, alright alright," she interrupted, "but we leave at the first sign of something sketchy happening." Tiana only giggled. "I mean it. If any piece of a Ferris wheel drops into my lap..."

"There aren't going to be Ferris wheels"

"Then it's even worse if a piece falls on me."

That was three weeks ago when they'd seen the sign for the carnival opening up. Now as they waited in line, Tiana rolling excitedly on the balls of her feet, Anna wondered how she'd ever got talked into doing this. She felt a bead of sweat roll down the curve of her spine. She didn't want to admit (to either herself or that smug Tiana) that she was actually excited about what they would witness this night. Cautiously excited. That first circus she'd gone to hadn't really set the right mood to make her feel like this was any sort of a good idea. There were only two people ahead of them, Anna thought that if she was fast enough she could make a clean getaway. But she wasn't and those two other people had cleared out by the time she was done thinking how she could leave ( _maybe I'll just start sprinting even though there's nothin' for miles_ ). She reached into her pocket and felt the paper tickets— real ticket stubs and not some screenshot on her phone! It was absurdly authentic and it emphasized that lightning bolt of excitement she felt as she rubbed them between her thumb and forefinger.

"Ticket or stick it," the carnie said abruptly. The smile on his face and the tone in his voice didn't match the noncommittal phrase and Anna scowled and pouted and looked him over. He was short and white. Anna wished she had more words to describe him with, but only saw the whiteness of his hair, his pale freckles, and his white _white_ skin. And also, also, good lord was he pint-sized. He probably needed to carry around a booster seat, which admittedly was an adorable image. She didn't realize how long she'd been staring until Tiana elbowed her and she looked back to the brilliantly white carnie, who held his arm out expectantly. His smile never wavered. With a little _oh whoops,_ she held out her tickets in the carnie grabbed them. He scrutinized the tickets with a very pointed, serious look (his tongue even peeked out to help) before ripping them in half and handing Anna the stubs.

"Enjoy the show," he said with a giant wave and greeted the next person, and Tiana tugged her along. They walked into the tent in near darkness, hardly able to see the seats— the outlines of the rows only visible by the sunlight seeping in through the entrance. It was arena-style seating like Anna's pit lectures. The focal point was far enough to be lost in the darkness and the tickets didn't have seat numbers, so Tiana and Anna just sat close to where they entered. Anna couldn't see much but could hear the sheer amount of people jammed into the area. She squinted and looked around, "woah, it's hella dark in here," As if it wasn't daylight outside at all. Just when she thought her eyes were getting used to the darkness, the center stage lit up. It was blinding, like someone flipped the biggest light switch in the world. And then there was a disembodied voice loud enough where Anna felt her bones rattle inside of her.

"Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, theys and thems, put your hands together for the ones, the onlys, the Arendazzlers!"

Suddenly there was an onslaught of raucous music from the stage, from above, from EVERYWHERE it seemed as colored lights flashed through the venue. She chanced a glance at her friend next to her, not wanting to miss whatever the heck was happening, and saw that little magic spark from before as a yellow light washed over her. A blue light swept over Anna herself and her attention landed back in the center, where a cast of characters were unfolding. They darted in from unlit portions of the stage, really only their shadowy silhouettes visible amongst the fog the rolled in. There were so many different sizes and shapes of them, weaving on and offstage, dancing seamlessly with each other. Anna's eyeballs darted everywhere to try to see everything.

As far as Anna knew circuses were weird and full of skeevy things; caged animals in less than savory conditions, unsafe acts that lead to disaster, and the scariest public restrooms she'd ever set foot in. But as she watched the display before her, she couldn't help being mesmerized. And this was just the opening number, as far as she could tell! She leaned forward in her seat and thought she heard a chuckle from her companion.

The fog dissipated and the booming voice continued. "Now, give it up for our performers! Olaf, the snowman! Oaken, the strong! Rapunzel, the bearded lady!" The performers appeared one by one as the disembodied voice called them. There was that carnie who took their tickets, practically glowing white under the stage lights; then a very tall, very stocky, very muscley man; then a comparatively teeny girl with an absolutely ridiculously oversized beard. It was braided and nearly touched the floor! "Flynn, the acrobat!" A handsome, dark-haired dude in a _you can see everything_ kind of tight spandex suit; "Kristoff, the ventriloquist and his puppet Sven" A blonde built fella, one arm in a cast and the other carrying a wooden reindeer doll; "and Elsa the magician!" A blonde girl so striking, Anna could feel how intense her eyes were from where she sat near the back. She conjured a set of stairs before her and took her time traversing them across the stage, before dissipating them with a meager flourish of her hand. Anna's entire head followed the movement. "And now your host, ringmaster Hans!" A ginger man appeared and bowed before the audience of applause.

As the act came to a close and the beginning introductories started ("Thank you all for joining us today, blah blah blah"), Anna finally leaned back in her seat. Her hands were firmly attached to the sides of her head like they were the only things keeping her brain from exploding. "Did you see that!?"

"It's kind of hard to miss!" Tiana laughed. She wasn't even smug, which Anna was grateful for. "I take it you're enjoying yourself?"

Any chance of an answer was drowned out by a big boom from the centerstage. The set had changed to look just like a comedy club, brick backdrop and stool included in a singular spotlight! A figure loomed in the corner of the stage before slowly walking into the spotlight. It was the hunky blonde guy with an arm in a cast and the puppet in his grasp, and he sheepishly smiled at the audience as he took his seat on the stool. The host— Ringmaster, Anna reminded herself— voiced overhead. "Give it up for our first act: Kristoff and Sven, the mountain men!"

Immediately the puppet retorted in a very deep voice, "I'm a reindeer, not a man. People aren't better than reindeers."

"Well," his human counterpart counteracted, "they certainly smell better than reindeers."

"I'll believe that if we're discounting you, buddy."

Anna giggled at parts of the banter, groaned at others, and cheered nevertheless as the act finished. Okay, that was actually not as bad as she thought it would be.

He took his leave and the stage lighting shifted to a dramatic blue. The next act was Flynn the acrobat, who rolled onto the stage in a giant metal framed wheel. He gave no speech, just sized up the audience with his gaze before launching himself into his act of spine-shattering, death-defying, _do human bodies bend that way_ stunts on provided wooden and metal structures. Anna's eyes darted around to follow him as he flipped and frolicked around the stage. He even flew— wait. Yes! Flew onstage! Anna noted that he was definitely wearing a harness, which led to a secondary thought: of course he's wearing a harness. They wouldn't want anything to go wrong. She did notice that some of the structures on the stage didn't seem set right— some gave under the weight of the performer. It was almost imperceptible and Anna thought that if the one he was standing on was just angled slightly less acutely it'd hold better— and then she thought she'd overthunk it all and told herself to can it. Just 'cause she did this kind of thing for a living doesn't mean she needed to think about it all the time. _So there was some shoddy equipment, big whoop._ He really seemed to be enjoying himself. Anna almost felt sad as he waved goodbye to the audience to make way for the next performance.

The lights changed substantially, from that dramatic bluish light that barely let up the stage (save for the one acrobat) to a bright happy yellow that lit the stage and it's surrounding area. The strongman, the bearded lady, and that funny little albino guy took to the stage. The Ringmaster's introductory was drowned out by cheers as the strong man lifted the other two seamlessly. He even flexed as he did so! The bearded lady— _Rashuzie? Peruzel? It was a weird name_ — hung from his bicep with her braided beard. Little Whitey, the snowman that is, struggled up. Oaken, the strongman, laughed boisterously and hoisted him up in the air in one fluid motion, making the struggle seem like it was part of the act. Oaken took the other two carnies and started to juggle them in the air. The audience clapped, the bearded lady jumped rope with her beard, and the snowman curled up and held onto his toes. His giggles could be heard amongst the clapping. The three of them genuinely looked like they were having a ball of a time, juggling and being juggled. Their act ended all too quickly and the Ringmaster appeared onstage again to give them a proper sendoff. Oaken picked him up and added him to the duo flying through the air. This was clearly NOT what the Ringmaster wanted as he yelped pathetically and unconfidently into the mic.

He tried to manage some control as Oaken gingerly placed him back on his feet. He brushed off the front and sleeves of his fancy striped coat and cleared his throat. "And that's all for those freaks and geeks!" He hurriedly and discreetly shooed them offstage.

"Now finally, our last performer of the night," Anna tried to lean forward in her seat but found she was already at the edge of it, "Elsa the Ice Queen!"

Anna was confused when a large spotlight roamed from the stage to amongst the audience and the confusion grew as a light panned right to their aisle. Right next to her! And as she followed it, her eyes landed on that blonde bombshell from before, standing in the crowd, right beside their aisle. Holy hot damn, she thought. Well, she _thought_ she thought. Tiana laughed beside her, not even hiding it behind her hand. Anna definitely absolutely said that out loud. But how was she supposed to be quiet with that girl standing right next to her? She couldn't help herself! The girl stood there for a moment, the spotlight highlighting her soft features, before speaking into her earpiece mic.

"Thanks for the intro, maestro."

HOLY HELL her voice! Anna gaped at her. And she could swear that, yes! the girl definitely looked at her! AND SMILED! Anna could've died on the spot. The raspy-voiced vixen descended the stairs slowly toward the stage below.

"Wow," Anna uttered, finding herself speechless without the performer having to do anything.

Speechless, and more than a little flustered.

The performer went on stage and gave a giant wave to the crowd. The polite introductory claps became wild with oohs and aahs as it began snowing in the big tent directly above the audience. Anna couldn't even see any sort of apparatus that would make it snow above them! She giggled and thought, "well, it is a magic show. Maybe it's magic," and brought her attention back to the stage.

The performance went on to have linking (ice) rings, pulling impossibly large (icy) things out of a teeny tiny bag, and there was even a rabbit in a hat (both made out of, you guessed it, ice. That was Elsa's schtick after all). Things that were known to be in a typical magic act. But Anna found she didn't care, and she couldn't look away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys! Decided to start another story instead of finishing the ones i already have. whoops. Enjoy!
> 
> Also, I have no beta, so double whoops. So if something's all funky in the grammar/punctuation/etc department, my bad.


	2. Chapter 2

The audience burst into applause. Anna included, admittedly trying to prove herself louder than the rest of the crowd. “for my final trick, I’ll need a volunteer from the audience. Usually I use Kristoff as my lovely assistant, but… I mean, you all saw the state of his arm earlier. I don’t want to add to that.” 

Tianas arm beside Anna shot up. Anna looked incredulously at her. “You’re volunteering? I thought you hated being in the spotlight?” 

Tiana, arm unwavering, glanced briefly at her and then smugly returned her gaze back to the stage. “You’re right. But I’m not volunteering myself”.

Her friends words rang and echoed in her ears until she understood the meaning. “Ti, you don’t mean—“ 

“Oh, but I DO mean.”

Anna‘s eyes shot out of her skull and she threw herself against her friend’s side. Tiana laughed maniacally as Anna attempted to stifle her.

“You don’t think I noticed how you stared at her during the intro? Not to mention how you became an absolute _PUDDLE_ when she stood near you!” 

“Tiana NO!”

“Tiana YES!!! Hey!!” She cupped her free hand around her mouth, “I have a friend here who would just LOOOOOOVE to—“ Anna shoved her hand on Tiana‘s mouth so all that could be heard from them was muffled yells and cries of protests. To Tianas pleasure and Anna’s dismay, the squabble only served to bring the performer’s attention to them.

“Alright, you in the back! You’ve made yourselves very clear,” she smiled bemusedly, “though I can only take one volunteer...”

Tiana pushed against Anna’s back and then her butt, “hey!” until she stood.

“Come onnnnn,” Tiana placed her hands on her friends shoulders, “what’s the worst that could happen? That she likes you back?”

“Wait, what—“ Anna sputtered and, with a final helpful shove, she propelled forward to the stage. “ _What’s the WoRsT that could... oh Ti, just you wait_ ” she mumbled and grumbled. The spotlight both guided and followed her down the stairs. She looked up and— woah. The super hot, super attractive — _is she wearing spandex—_ performer was watching her. Watching her! Her mouth was moving, surely that raspy sexy voice was saying something important. When she’d reached the stage, her ears registered the audience applause. The blood and adrenaline passing through her head must’ve been too loud. One thing she _did_ hear over everything else was Tiana, screaming,

“THAT’S MY GIRL! GO GET HER!” 

She briefly covered her eyes out of embarrassment and also from being blinded by the lights. As she neared the performer, _of course her name is Elsa, it’s so freakin attractive,_ she could feel the sweat gathering in her palms and— good god it was hot up there, why was it so hot?! Elsa and her stupid smirk weren’t helping. What was the right move here? Does Anna say something first? Does she, what, stand here? Right here?

“Uh...” Anna felt her mind go a million miles a minute.

“Hi.”

The soft voice beside her made her look up.

“H-hi me?”

She blinked back her surprise and met the other girls eyes. A slight, almost shy nod as they held their gaze. _Wow._

“Oh! Um, hi?”

Elsa seemed pleased with this greeting and turned to face the audience. “Give it up for our beautiful volunteer!”

Anna could feel herself fizzle and short-circuit at the word ‘beautiful’. _Get a grip, she thought, it’s a performance. She’s supposed to say junk like this._ Despite trying to bring herself back down to earth, her caveman brain kept thinking “pretty girl called me pretty” and stood awkwardly without actually dragging her knuckles on the ground.

Elsa kept things moving. “Have you ever seen any magic close-up before?” She asked directly to Anna.

Anna thought about that one time that her friend Ryder had snorted a hotdog into his nose and then hawked it out of his mouth loogie-style, but didn’t think it was worth mentioning. “Nothing other than what I’m seeing right now.”

Oh god. Was that as terribly flirty as she thought it was? A quick glance at Elsa told her that, yes, she read it as a flirty gesture, as surprise lined her features. _Maybe a blush too?_ Anna’s caveman brain thought hopefully. But it was hot up there. _Maybe it’s not a blush. Maybe I didn’t say anything flirty. And if it was, maybe, just maybe, the mic didn’t pick up what I said and I can get away with this scot-free—_

No such luck, as Anna heard a stupidly familiar voice in the audience yell “woah-ho Romeo!” Oy vey.

Elsa cleared her throat into her mic, “now, before we get to the big league magic, she and I have to develop a bond of magical proportions, that which can only be achieved with—“ and did a terribly dramatic flourish with her hands, “a card trick”. 

“Wow!!” Anna couldn’t help herself. Where did those cards come from? And— aw man, she was part of the act too! Gotta focus. Elsa held the fanned-out deck towards her and mouth was moving, crud, what was she saying?

“—any card!”

Ah, yes.

Anna ran her pointer finger over them and picked the one that just felt right. Elsa asked her to look at it, then place it back in the pile _without showing me, alright._ As she did so, her fingers brushed against Elsa’s and she jerked her hand back from the contact. Maybe a little too forcefully; Elsa gave her a weird look. She just gave a weak chuckle back.

“Okay! Now, drumroll please!” She shouted, and a snare from who-knows-where let out a long dramatic roll.

“Iiiiiiiiis THIS your card,” there was an anticlimactic reveal of the absolute wrong card, punctuated by a cymbal crash.

“Uhhhh,” Anna didn’t know what to say, especially not with Elsa wearing the cutest, dopiest expression; her eyebrows urging her to answer, “it’s, ahh...”

Elsa looked between the card she’d held up and the girl onstage and then feigned confusion.

“This isn’t your card?” Anna bit her lip and shook her head. “What was your card, then?”

Anna apprehensively answered, “nine of spades,” and then felt sort of bad because Elsa was holding up the eight of clubs and, you know, that’s close enough that she could’ve just said ‘yes’ and maybe saved Elsa some embarrassment. 

But Elsa just patted her sides and flipped through the deck, mumbling “nine of spades, nine of sp— it must be around here somewhere. Nine of spades, you said?”

Anna nodded, and Elsa leaned in to whisper:

“Are you ready?”

Before Anna could even think about answering, Elsa made a wide gesture to the curtain just behind them, “maybe it’s been right here the whole time!” 

The curtain dropped to reveal a humongous ice sculpture of a giant playing card, and not just any ol’ playing card. The nine of freakin’ spades.

“Wow!!!!!” Anna shouted and the audience roared with applause. The giant card towered over them and she craned her neck back to look at it in all its glory. It was a few feet thick and tall as the ceiling, held up by wooden structures similarly precarious to the ones the acrobat used. How did an entire wall of ice get there? And how did it have the right card carved into it? Magic shows were an entirely new concept to Anna, but she didn’t think that it’d be THIS exciting. She barely registered Elsa addressing the crowd before turning back to her. 

“That was amazing! You did the magic!” She said, making eye contact. Elsa smiled all big and her eyes crinkled all cute-like, and Anna could feel her smile grow too. She could get a pretty good look at the performer now; even through the stage makeup, there were her pillowy rouge lips, adorable light little freckles sprinkled across her nose, and of course those striking eyes now so close. So close. Anna could see her own reflection in them. Elsa was staring right at her, and Anna thought in that moment that maybe, just maybe, she was thinking the same kind of things. There was a certain something floating between them, a palpable something that made her heart go gooey and lightning zing through her. And then the roaring crowd flooded back in and Anna felt the real world coming back before she could classify this moment as a capital M Moment™️. 

And then before she could shake away any of those feelings, she realized that the audience was screaming, not cheering. 

She looked to the crowd, the crowd looked at Elsa. She looked at Elsa. Elsa looked behind them. Anna followed her wide-eyed gaze to the giant ice card, as it weebled and wobbled and cracked down the middle. Her eyes met Elsa’s panicked ones. No, that’s not right. Elsa looked downright _fearful._

It tipped over, half of it teetered backwards and safely away from the two girls. But the other half slowly rocked forward and its shadow descended upon them. Anna was frozen in place. But Elsa shoved her out of the ice’s way before she could even think twice. Anna’s eyes stayed connected with Elsa’s until she felt herself land hard on the floor and had to shut them. When she opened them back up, the block of ice was nowhere to be seen. Instead was a smattering of ice scattered on the stage floor, as if it’d just hailed in the one area. And there in the center stood Elsa, arms held in front of herself, unscathed. 

Anna could only gape in absolute awe.

Elsa barely moved from her position. Anna could see and hear her chest moving with how heavy she was breathing. The stage lights dimmed. It was only then that Elsa seemed to realized where she was and what had happened and, with a final, sorry look at Anna, blinked quickly and ran far behind the curtains. One of Anna’s hands came up pathetically as if it would stop the performer from running. 

“That’s all we have for tonight, folks! Please make your way to the exits!” The ringmaster’s voice came overhead.

Anna didn’t realize how long she’d been staring after Elsa’s departure until she looked to the dissipating crowd. Most people had made their way to and out of the exits, though a few people lingered— perhaps to clean up after themselves, perhaps to be looky-loos and watch what’d happen next, perhaps some of them were honestly stunned. Anna sure was. But she managed to pull herself up and walk off the iced-over stage. Up into the walkway between the arena seats and to where she finally caught up to Tiana. 

“Are you alright?” Tiana’s hands were tight on her shoulders.

“Yeah, I’m fine.”

“Was that supposed to happen?”

Anna thought about Elsa’s eyes. Her beautiful eyes, and how they looked when Anna was nearly beneath the block of ice. “I don’t think so.”

They soon left the tent with the crowd and saw daylight, but there was something nagging at Anna that she couldn’t stop thinking about. Something tall and blonde and frightened. 

“Ti,” Anna grabbed at her friends arm, who then turned and looked at her, puzzled, “I have to go find her.”

“Her as in... the magician?” Anna nodded.

“She thinks this is her fault. I have to let her know that everything is alright. She made sure I was alright. Like, look! Look at me!” Anna presented herself and Tiana gave her a once-over.

“You look gay. We went over this— you asked me if your outfit was gay enough and I said no so we picked that outfit specifically so you’d look even gayer.”

“No, I mean, like, no bumps or bruises, no scratches, no limbs hanging off— I came out of that practically uninjured.”

“Other than a brain-damaging crush,” Tiana added not-so-under her breath.

Anna ignored her comment and looked back to the tent. “I have to let Elsa know that everything is okay.”


	3. Chapter 3

Tiana didn't take much convincing, _"come on, let's go get your girl"_ , and they snuck back into the big top. It was completely empty now except for the two figures facing the stage, their backs to the girls. Anna quickly recognized them and their vastly differing outlines as the strongman and the ringmaster. They were sizing up the mess onstage where shards of ice were still splayed out, curiously intact and not melting. Anna wasn't sure how, she recalled that it was definitely hot up in that stage. Though, now that she thought about it, it really only got hot after she looked at Elsa and Elsa looked back at her with those big baby blues and called her pretty and— oof. Anna's face was getting warm once again, this time just from the memory.

The men ahead were still mumbling and grumbling, and the only words that she could hear came after a loud sigh from the grumpy leader. "God. Damn. It. Alright, meet back in the family tent. Let's regroup and recoup and ughghghh—" and then his words became lost in grumbles as he stalked to an exit left of the stage. Once he'd dipped out, Anna wasted no time in running down toward the stage with Tiana in tow. She and her companion were still unseen by the strongman, even as she approached him with a meek "Excuse me—"

"Sorry, no meet and greet after tonight's show," he said without turning around. It was then that Anna realized the size of this guy. He was absolutely massive. Someone had definitely been eatin' his Wheaties. He was like, two or three of her stacked up. He could've folded her in half and stuck her in his pocket. His gargantuan pockets.

When she hadn't answered him (because she was so focused on how absolutely _puny_ she was compared to him), he turned around to look at her. Then he pointed at her and pursed his lips like he was trying to place her.

"Wait. Hold. You are the girl, ja?"

"The, uh?" Now she was distracted by this massive hand that was pointing at her. It was bigger than her head. It looked like it could comfortably _hold_ her head and use her teeny tiny melon as a baseball.

"The volunteer? Yes, follow me," and he headed off in the same direction the other guy went, not really looking to see if they were following behind. Anna and Tiana shared a look, Ti shrugged, and off they went. The exit was a small slit in the far edge of the tent. Mister Big Man had to duck below it and then he held the side open for them.

"Vere you injured?"

It took Anna a minute to realize that he had a thick accent, and another to realize he was talking to her. "No, no, I'm fine."

"That is good. I am Oaken."

"Anna. And this is my friend Tiana." Tiana gave a tiny wave.

"Sorry for all of this violence. I'll add on tickets for good feelings, ja?"

"It's all okay, really. I want to prove it. Can you take me to see Elsa?"

"I will take you to see them all."

They stopped outside a smaller tent framed with fairy lights and retro carnival signs and a bunch of other hippie shit that Anna loved, and could hear a dull roar of commotion coming from inside. Oaken pushed the entrance flaps aside.

"What happened out there?" Hans was pacing back and forth in front of the group of carnies.

"I don't know." Elsa spoke up. She was sitting on a couch, squished between the bearded girl and the albino guy. "Some weird energy. It wasn't like, voodoo energy or anything bad, just... the way that girl was looking at me sent a chill down my spine."

"Do you know how ironic that sounds, coming from you?" The acrobat on the other side of the room said as he leaned forward in his stool. He didn't seem unfriendly, though. Just an asshole.

Something about this moment made Oaken think this was a good time to interject. "Hoo hoo! Hi family!"

Scattered, dejected replies of 'hoo hoo' followed. Hans looked up from the rut on the floor he'd made with his useless pacing and his eyes landed on Anna. There were some quick emotions that ran through his face; confusion, recognition, anger. But he settled on some pitifully crushed hostility and stopped running his hands through his hair.

"Are you here to sue us? 'Cause you'll have to get in line." Anna thought she heard him mutter _and it's a big line._

"No! No, I'm here to make things alright! I know why things went wrong." She tried to make eye contact with Elsa but every attempt was met with a shy averted glance elsewhere. The performer no longer had that confidence she'd had onstage, instead she just looked sad and, honestly, kind of ashamed.

"Hey, Elsa, right?" Anna didn't really need to ask— the name had been etched into her gay brain since the moment she heard it— but she didn't want to come off creepy. Finally performer looked up from her staring contest with the floor, albeit cautiously. "This wasn't your fault. I noticed before that the wooden structure was off. It broke because it wasn't built properly."

The acrobat spoke up and gestured to the girl on the couch. "No, it broke because the snowman over here couldn't control herself."

"Guys I didn't break anything today, I promise. I really made sure!"

"Not you, Olaf."

"Kristoff's our builder," the bearded lady pointed out, "if it was a set error, shouldn't he be the one to take responsibility?"

The puppeteer, Kristoff, just scoffed from where he sat spread out on a second couch. "I built the best I could in the timeframe I was given, with _ONE ARM._ " He waved his cast-clad arm around for emphasis. "It's Hans' fault for not giving me more time. And all of your faults for putting this all on me when none of you thought to help."

Everyone was talking over each other. There were a lot of strong personalities in this one room and all of them were distressed. Anna had to make things right.

"Hey," she said over everyone's quabbling, "I do construction work. I do set design. I saw some things that could be fixed and tonight's disaster could've honestly been avoided entirely. I'm not gonna take any legal action because I feel like I could help you guys."

"Help us? Wait—" Hans interjected. "— what are you saying?"

"My name's Anna and I'd like to work for you."

The onslaught of voices had fizzled to silence as everyone stared at her. Even Tiana, who'd previously been standing aside as support/wingwoman, couldn't help her baffled expression.

She huffed. "Look. I know how to build stuff. You _need_ someone who builds stuff. Ergo—" and here she gestured to her whole being, from her head to her toes, "—ya need me. What do you say?"

Hans looked dumbstruck. Anna can see where he's coming from, though. He was really expecting this random chick to storm in and sue him and instead she's asking for a job? But his face returned back from the surprise and he blew air out of his mouth.

"Look, we're in town for a few weeks. Why don't you come back tomorrow? We can talk then. Tonight's... tonight's been a long night." One of his hands came up to run through his hair, but at least he didn't look like he was gonna start pulling at it again. "That sound good?"

Anna was overjoyed that Hans seemed to actually consider this and squealed a dorky squeal. "Hell yeah. See you all tomorrow," she said with a small little wave, making sure to give extra attention the ice blonde magician still hunched in her seat.

When she and Tiana were far enough away from the tent, she breathed out a few enthusiastic giggles. "I can't believe I did that!"

Tiana finally faced her with frantic bug eyes. "I can't believe you did that!" And then she laughed a single bark of a laugh. "Wow. Working with a group of carnies. _Offering_ to work with a group of carnies. How's _that_ for a first circus experience?"

And, you know, Anna had to agree.


	4. Chapter 4

Anna pulled up to the eerily empty fairground that looked so unfamiliar in the sunlight, and it didn't help that it was hot as balls. It probably would've been a bearable temperature if Tiana hadn't talked her into dressing up ("It's kind of a job interview so you shouldn't show up looking like trash." "Yes mom."). She crossed the grounds in the direction of where she remembered the family tent was, trying desperately not to pull at her collar too much.

Somehow Anna made it to the tent without seeing a single person. She didn't really know what the protocol was here and since there really wasn't a door to knock on, she shrugged and let herself in.

"Finally, dude. We've really gotta talk about— oh," the acrobat stood in the middle of the room in plainclothes, "sorry, I thought you were Hans."

He then fell backward into the couch with a dramatic sigh, presumably in the same position he was in before she'd barged in.

"Uh, sorry to disappoint." She took her own seat in the uncomfortable stool and waited.

And. Waited.

"So are you here for Hans too?"

"Yeah."

"Ah. Neat."

If there was wind outside, it might've been able to cut the awkward silence. But there wasn't. So the silence remained deafening.

"I'm Anna."

"I remember. Yesterday's meeting."

Silent, other than the weird smatterings of conversation— could they be called that? But then he surprised her and sat up with an exaggerated groan that she'd expect from an 80 year old.

"I'm Flynn. Flynn Rider."

She threw her hand out and he smirked and grabbed it. They shook hands and suddenly the weird tense air dissipated.

"Is he always this late?" She asked him after he brought over a couple bags of popcorn (in those fancy striped bags that felt all authentic and shit).

"He's got a track record, sure."

"How long have you been waiting?"

"Only a few hours." Anna gave him a pointed look and threw a piece of popcorn at him. "What? He's a very busy guy."

"Can you say anything mean about him?"

"Can I? Yeah. Would I?" And he paused. And then grinned. And then threw a handful of popcorn back at her. "Nah."

Anna screeched and flung some more pieces at him and he threw some at her and this went on until they were throwing the hard rejected kernels of unpopped popcorn. They laughed out of breath and Anna wiped the excess butter onto her pants, while Flynn just stuck his buttery fingers in his mouth. He smiled a kind smile and caught his breath as he sat back on the couch.

"He's a good guy, Hans. I've got a lot to thank him for. He sorta brought us all together and, even though it sounds a little cliche, we're all family."

Yeah, it did sound a little (a lottle) cliche, but Anna wanted to know more about the group. So she kept quiet and gave him a warm smile.

"Oaken is the uncle that looks like he could murder someone, but he has trouble getting the frogs out of the tents because he, and I quote, 'doesn't want to pick them up wrong'. Olaf is like the younger brother who— wait, that's not quite right. I wanna say he's the child, but somehow he's _everybody's_ child. He's his own brand, that one. Can't remember stuff to say unless we drill it into him and he usually ends up saying the wrong thing anyway. That's why he doesn't have speaking parts in any routine."

_That would explain the weird thing he said yesterday, ticket or stick it._

"Rapunzel's like the weird cousin. She's fun to talk to and great to be around, but at the end of the day, she's got a 6-foot beard. And Kristoff is the brother who would definitely protect your honor in a fight. I don't know how his arm got banged up but I'll bet anything it was in a tussle."

"You think?"

"He's scrappy. I'm sure Sven could pack a punch too."

"Sven as in, Sven the reindeer?" The reindeer _puppet_.

"The very same. And then there's me, the rugged, dashing, incredibly handsome older brother who has to turn away damsels left and right because I have to focus on my career."

"Uh-huh."

"I can't have any distractions. Well, maybe one or two, but after those four distractions I simply must stay the course. Yes, those ten distracting damsels will just have to wait."

"And Elsa?"

"She wouldn't try to distract me."

"No, I mean who would Elsa be in the family?" Anna tried real hard not to look too interested. It was a good attempt, 'A' for effort. But she still leaned forward in her seat almost to the point of falling off.

Something in Anna's face (oh, whatever could it be) must've tipped Flynn off as a shit-eating grin rippled across his already smug face.

"Elsa's like an older sister. Reclusive, smart as a whip. She's tough too."

He was quiet for a long while. Whether reminiscing or trying to pause for great effect, it was annoying to Anna and he knew it.

"And? _And_?" She could feel her cheeks warming up, which sucked 'cause she knew how red she could get. He was eating this up.

"Aaaand you'll have to ask _her_ about the things you want to know." But for some reason, he spared her any extra humiliation and decided to barrel forward in his extended metaphor instead. "Hans is like the stepdad. You don't really want to listen to him but he knows what's best. And honestly, he tries his best. That's really what matters."

Anna felt Flynn getting sappy and dorky so she crumpled up the long-empty popcorn bag and threw it at him. He deflected it with a slap.

"What! He's a good man. He got me out of some tough spots— I mean, when he first found me, I'd just been caught robbing a bank."

"Wait, _what?!_ "

At long last, the man himself burst through the tent opening. He was cuffing the sleeves of his stage outfit just so.

"Flynn, sorry to keep you waiting, I was—" Hans stopped short and looked to both of the tents occupants, who were now standing stalk-straight. Anna could even see his brain short-circuit as the three of them held this Mexican Standoff-type stance.

Hans regained his composure. "Shit." he grumbled. "Anya, right?"

"Anna. Ahhh-na."

"I apologize for that. And for making you wait as well. Unfortunately, I've messed up and you'll have to wait a bit longer. We have rehearsal right now, and then there's the show... Think you could come back later? After the show?"

Anna frowned. Like, sure, she could come back later. And yeah, she passed a Mickey D's on the way and it was calling her empty, angry belly right now. But it was kind of a dick move for him to make her wait, and then throw her out just to have her come back.

"Or better yet," Hans interrupted her train of thought before she could answer, "would you like to stay and watch the show?"

She squealed in response, " _really?!_ ", and he very briefly and calmly mentioned letting her watch from backstage before he was absolutely encased in a spine-crushing bear hug.

Hans took his leave after Anna released him, calling out to Flynn that they could talk at rehearsal. Which Flynn then went to follow him, but Anna gripped his arm before he left the tent.

"Hey, um, thank you for talking to me." Anna freed his arm when he turned around to face her and he gave her a fat, genuine smile.

"Yeah, kiddo!" He patted her head.

"I'm serious. It means a lot to me. And I'd like to help you with something that, well, I don't know if anyone else had been comfortable enough to tell you about..." His eyes widened with piqued interest and Anna felt almost bad to have to say it.

"Flynn, your acrobat outfit that you wear?"

"Uh huh?"

"You can see everything."

"Everything?"

"Everything."

His eyebrows scrunched together and his voice became a whisper. "... the boys?"

"Especially the boys."

He slapped his whole face with both hands, "oh my gooooodddddd", then slumped forward, nearly crashing into Anna. "What am I supposed to do? This was a custom-made fit! And the material is so breathable, it practically has its own set of lungs! I can't go pick up some two-bit leotard from Walmart, or worse—" he gulped, "—Sears..."

"What are you talking about? You don't have to do any of that."

He peeked out though a couple of fingers.

Anna sighed. "A sock, Flynn. Put your junk in a sock and it'll hide the details. Plus it could make you, you know. Look bigger."

"You'd like that, wouldn't you?"

"You disgust me." But she smiled and shook her head. As he waved goodbye, she could hear him saying _a sock, huh_.


	5. Chapter 5

There was no way Anna could pass up watching the show from backstage, but there was something that needed to be done first. She didn't really feel like she needed to be at the rehearsal—she wasn't even hired yet. So, a trip to Mickey D's and two burgers later, she stood at the edge of the stage during the opening act, munching on fries. Her tum tum was yelling that it was at max capacity but her brain demanded _more fries_ and really, who could argue with that.

As the opening act came to a close, Olaf neared her to turn off the fog machine that was on her side of the stage. She watched the group move the set pieces around seamlessly before the fog could clear out completely.

Then Kristoff's set began. Anna crossed her arms, impressed with the speed. Olaf came back, hands on his knees and panting from the quick reset. Anna waited for him to catch his breath before speaking up.

"You guys really work well together."

He kind of looked shocked. Like either he hadn't noticed her standing next to him or hadn't expected her to talk to him. But then he smiled a big toothy smile. "Yeah! Sometimes I'll forget my cue but they've got my back. Plus, I've been getting better! 'Put the chair on the square', see! I got that down."

She smiled at his dopiness. The claps from the audience brought her back, and Hans announced the Freaks and Geeks act. Which was weird, because Anna thought that Flynn's acrobat routine was next in the show. Maybe they changed it up at rehearsal. Serves her right for skipping out to get McDicks. Regardless, Oaken and Rapunzel stood onstage. And Olaf stood next to her.

"—and then there's 'rig two in the blue', which means that I put rig two out when I see the blue lights that we use during Flynn's performance."

"Olaf! You're supposed to be on!" The performers onstage were undoubtedly looking for their third.

"Hmm? Oh shoot. See, this is what I mean. I'm getting better but I still forget." And he waddled onstage.

Anna's heart raced from that simple, itty bitty mishap. And god, honestly, with the way her heart was beating you'd think something worse had happened. Something worse had _already_ happened before, and something worse could always happen, because this was the circus and— _sheesh_ , she thought with her hand clenching her chest, _am I ready for this kind of showbiz?_

The act went on without issue and Anna breathed a little easier. Flynn's act began not long after. She's glad to see he took her sock advice. Nothing goes wrong in his act, thankfully. Some things seem to creak and bend, but his performance isn't affected. She typed out the slight anomalies in her notes app anyhow so she knows what to fix first when she starts working. If she starts working. Whatever.

Then it was Elsa's turn. Her performance went the same as before; she started in the audience, made her way to the stage, and let it snow. She did her icy tricks and finally called for a volunteer.

Anna's immediately jealous of this stupid volunteer that gets to spend more time with Elsa, some dark-haired hottie with a sickeningly cute button nose. Though, she happily notes, that the performer doesn't call this one 'beautiful' and Anna considers that a win.

Once again, the card trick. Elsa says the wrong card and doesn't seem embarrassed by it, and then the curtain is drawn with the giant ice block of the correct card. Again! How? Anna thought that she'd get a lil sneak peek of something that would explain it because she was backstage, but she didn't see Jack-diddly-squat. It wasn't even the same card as Anna's was, the nine of spades, so it wasn't rigged in that way either.

At long last, Anna got to see what the rest of the performance would've looked like if things had gone right and, boy, it was a doozy. Elsa wheeled out an apparatus from the other side of the stage. It was a flat ice board just taller than her, with cuffs for her wrists and ankles to be locked up. Ice chains dangled from the side of the apparatus. And then she asked the volunteer to lock her up with the cuffs and to wrap the chains tight around her.

Anna couldn't believe her stupid gay eyes. Had the performance last night gone the way it was supposed to, she would've been right next to Elsa! Actively and amazingly touching her! Though she woulda never heard the end from Tiana. So, you know. Double edged sword and whatnot.

Once Elsa was satisfactorily trapped, she addressed the volunteer to the audience.

"So how tied up would you say I am?"

"Haha! Oh, you're serious? Incredibly."

"You would say that there's no way I can escape from these restraints?"

"Not a chance."

"Excellent. You may return to your seat." Elsa glanced to Anna's side of the stage and it was real obvious that she wasn't expecting her to be there again, let alone to be _watching_ her. So Anna gave a lil sheepish smile. And then two thumbs up, for luck's sake. And then when Elsa looked away, Anna smacked her forehead. _Two thumbs up,_ _why did I do that?_ As the volunteer left the stage, Flynn appeared rolling in another rig. This one looked like an aquarium with an impressive pile of fresh snow in it, hoisted about 6 feet in the air. When it was above Elsa, she continued with her demonstration. "Above my head is about 800 pounds of snow. This device has a timer on it, and I have about a minute to escape from my restraints before it all comes down on me. Now, it may look nice and powdery, but this amount of snow can and would crush anything. Even a person. The timer is already ticking down."

She looked at Anna again and honestly seemed to only be talking to her.

"Let's see what happens this time."

The audience burst into shouts and cheers of excitement. Anna herself offered her sideline support as loud as she could, and within seconds Elsa's wrist came free. Anna whooped and hollered her throat raw. The performer seemed to be making progress with the other wrist cuff but struggled with the chains.

Without warning, the pile of snow came crashing down.

"No!" Anna screamed. The entire apparatus that Elsa'd been attached to was buried and Anna couldn't see what had become of the performer. Against her better judgement, she ran onstage and began to dig through the snow. There was so much snow. Why did it have to be snow? Her hands flurried through the white powder, fingers beginning to go numb. She felt another set of hands digging beside her and increased her speed.

"Are you seeing anything yet?" The person beside her voiced. Wait. _That voice._

Anna looked up and— holy crap. There, without a scratch, without even a flake of snow on her, was the one, the only, the Ice Queen herself.

"Elsa!" She screamed and hugged her and heard the audience behind them clapping and yelling enthusiastically.

Elsa wasn't really hugging back, and then Anna realized how weird it was to be hugging her. But in her defense, she thought Elsa had DIED (or, less dramatically, gotten injured). And also, the magic trick was really freakin' bomb. And also, Elsa was really cute. All of those things deserved a hug, and Anna hoped she conveyed that fact with a final squeeze and then she scurried backstage.

She watched as the audience gave her a standing ovation, the arena filled with the sound of clapping. There was a moment where Elsa was glowing under the stage lights, smiling just slightly but mostly looking like she was in complete awe. Like she couldn't believe that the claps were for her. Her eyes glistened with what Anna could define as pure happiness. Her face lined with that magic glow that only a circus could bring out. And then she felt like it was a moment she was intruding on, one she wasn't supposed to see, so she averted her eyes.

When the claps died down and Ringmaster Hans took over the stage, Elsa made her way back behind the curtain. She happened to stand just out of range for a socially acceptable conversation, So Anna moseyed on over as casually as she could (read: not casually at all) and cleared her throat.

"That trick was great out there. You were really spectacular."

Elsa's apprehensive, but that magic glow on her face hadn't left. "Thank you," she said slowly and earnestly.

Before Anna could gush anymore, Flynn came up beside Anna. "How'd you like the show?" He said, big stupid smile on his face.

"You just want me to talk about your sock, don't ya?"

"I knew you were looking."

"I'm sorry—" Elsa interjected, eyes darting rapidly between the two in front of her, "—do you know each other?"

Anna went to answer something along the lines of _I know he's an ass,_ but Flynn beat her to to the punch. "You could say we're besties." Which, yeah, that was strange. Even stranger, he threw his arm around Anna's shoulders. He was still warm and sweaty from the workout of his performance. Anna grimaced and punched him where she could reach. He didn't flinch. "Yep, we're thick as thieves."

"Mm-hmm..." Elsa hummed, an eyebrow cocked. "... well, we should get ready for curtain call."

"Yep, meet you out there, Els!"

Elsa, eyebrow still high into her hairline, walked backwards toward the stage. Flynn relinquished his hold on Anna.

"Okay, what was that all about?" She asked, fists firmly planted on her hips.

"Oh, just helping you out. You'll see," and he too went to the stage.

 _Helping out, yeah yeah. More like cock blocking. Or, like, twat swatting._ She was still thinking about it as the performers all lined up and held hands and took their bows. _Clitorference?_

The cork popped out of the champagne bottle and the family gathered in the tent cheered thusly. "Finally," Hans went around pouring the liquid in each persons glass, "we can celebrate like we were supposed to on opening night!"

He stopped in front of Olaf. The little guy held his glass out and waggled his big bushy eyebrows. "Okay, Olaf," Hans relented and poured an itsy amount of champagne, "but only because tonight was such a good night. You all did so phenomenal. I'm so proud of each one of you."

"Aw Hans, ya big sap!" Flynn held his glass out. "We couldn't've done it without our fearless ringmaster. To Hans!"

"To Hans!" The group echoed, and then sipped their drinks.

Anna sat idly by on one of the free stools, content with watching the group enjoy themselves after a job well done. She wasn't part of them ( _yet_ , a quiet part of her hoped), but they allowed her into their celebration anyway. It meant a lot, plus, free booze.

Amidst the chatter and scattered conversations, Kristoff and Flynn cornered Hans.

"So. Are you gonna hire her or what?" Kristoff was all business. Flynn hid behind his champagne flute.

"I'm not sure yet. We were supposed to talk after the show—"

"—Which is now," Kristoff pointed out.

Flynn only gave a knowing _he's got you there_ look, and this was honestly the longest Hans had ever had a conversation with Flynn present where he hadn't talked. That had to mean something.

"You guys really think she'd be a help?" Hans asked.

"I mean," Flynn finally spoke up, "she helped me with my sock thing."

"Flynn, that's not important."

"... it was to me..." the acrobat muttered into his drink.

"I'll go talk to her now," Hans set his glass on a nearby table. He didn't make it halfway across the room before Anna noticed him and sprang to her feet.

"Hans! Uh, Ringmaster Hans. I'm sorry for the whole running onstage thing, I wasn't thinking and—"

"— ah, no worries. It made the act more realistic."

Anna smiled, relieved. Then she recalled her phone and pulled it out of her back pocket. "I made this list of things that need to be fixed sooner rather than later, and then some stuff that could be put off but that should be done eventually."

Hans seemed impressed with Anna's list, very impressed. Anna waited, watching his eyes dart around the screen. After deleting all the notes on how cute Elsa was, there remained about twenty bullet points regarding set design, strengthening certain structures for better loadbearing, and—

"—'types of wood'?" He asked.

"Oh, yeah, that. I noticed that you guys are using some cheap lumber, but it's the kinda stuff that's not gonna last very long in this heat with the amount of stress during performances."

Hans looked incredulously at her and frowned. "I've never had anybody who nitpicked this much."

"Oh!" Anna suddenly realized she might've overstepped her boundaries. "I'm so sorry! I just meant that the wood could warp and it could fail and—" _Big dumb mouth BIG DUMB MOUTH!_

"No, that's phenomenal. We've never had someone who cared enough to do this. Even Kristoff, while he doesn't seem to mind the building process, he wasn't ever all about it." By now, all other individual conversations in the tent had petered away, the group of carnies honed in on the two of them.

"What are you saying?" She asked Hans.

"What I'm saying, or asking, is are you in, Anna?"

She couldn't stop the stupid grin on her stupid mouth. "I'm all in. Carniv-all in, baby!"

Everyone groaned and Anna relished in it. And then they finally got down, carnie-style.


	6. Chapter 6

The brush lazily swept over the newly-built set piece as Anna propped her head on her arm. She really should've been focusing more on painting seeing as this was one of the more elaborate pieces that added to the storytelling part of an act, but her eyes were glued on Elsa instead, who was rehearsing her ice ring bit. She was entranced with the way Elsas hips swayed. Left, right, left, right— it looked like she was doing this on purpose! Which Anna quickly realized, god, she probably was. It was a performance after all, and Anna needed to reign herself in.

"You like her, don't you?"

Anna's arm gave out under her and she went into full-on karate attack mode, which probably would've been way more impressive had she ever actually taken karate. She looked to her would-be assailant to find Kristoff towering over her.

"Oh, hey." She slumped down and lowered her makeshift weapon, the wet paintbrush.

"You've been painting the same spot for a while. Need some help? Or... some of those blinders they use on horses so they can focus?" He cocked an eyebrow.

"Har har. Don't take this wrong, but how much help could you really be?" She pointed at his arm in the sling and went back to painting, _actually_ painting and not staring at Elsa.

"I've got one working arm."

Anna was kinda sweaty and tired from having worked for a few hours by this point and was honestly behind schedule because of all of her leering, so it didn't really take much to convince her that, yeah, extra help couldn't hurt. Even if it was from a one-armed dude. She nodded her head at the open paint can and with great effort, Kristoff kneeled by her to get started. Her painting area was about halfway done —okay, maybe a quarter of the way done, but she had a deadline so to hell with it— when she couldn't ignore the sound of Kristoff's annoying ass arm sling sliding around.

"So, how'd your arm get fucked in the first place?"

It seemed like he was expecting her to ask 'cause he immediately answered, "I fell onto it."

"Some fall."

"Well in my defense, it was a hundred foot drop that I seriously miscalculated."

"If you jumped off a cliff, you coulda just said so. I would've thought better of you."

"Really?"

"No. What kind of idiot jumps off a cliff?"

He laughed. "Yeah. Got me there." After he spoke, he got all quiet and contemplative, lowering his paintbrush with a sigh. "It wasn't a cliff. It's embarrassing. I— I dunno. I was doing some gymnastics training."

"You do gymnastics?"

"Not even a little. But I wanted to try to branch out to try and be something amazing like a gymnast, because all I am at the end of the day is just some guy with a puppet. Don't tell Sven I said that." Anna didn't want to make any promises she couldn't keep so she kept quiet and he continued. "I went to this training session and we did a lot of little beginner things, and I really wanted to do some advanced stuff like the high dive— you know the thing where they jump into an inflatable landing pad— but the guy told me that they reserve that for the last day of class, and I'm in a circus. A _traveling_ circus. I can't wait for the last day to roll around. So I snuck up to the top of this high jump after our session. I assumed it would be like landing on a nice pillow, and y'know, maybe it would've if I knew how to land. Instead, I plummeted like a rock and landed right on my arm."

"At least it wasn't your puppeteering arm."

"Oh, it was."

"You're like a walking PSA," she tsked at him.

He didn't reply. He just looked embarrassed and even possibly sad. Anna couldn't stand to see him look that pathetic, so she abandoned the set piece and put her wet brush on his sling.

"Hey! Woah, what are you doing?"

"Painting. Your cast is boring.

He rolled his big eyes and relented. "Fine. Make it good though, I only have one of these."

She could've made it good. But this was Kristoff, so she aimed for dorky. After a quiet moment of painting, she spoke up. "You're not just a guy with a puppet, you know."

"Everyone else can do such awesome stuff. Oaken can literally pick someone up and throw them like a football. Flynn can do his jumping shit. Olaf and Rapunzel were just born cool. Elsa's, well, you know. She's Elsa. All I've got is a puppet."

He sounded so dejected and even though Anna barely knew this guy, somehow, she knew that he deserved to be here. She huffed, her brow furrowing in distaste.

"Why do you have these insecurities? You had to learn to do the things you're good at. Talent isn't born, it's learned and you had to work for this."

Kristoff harrumphed. "Yeah, okay."

"I'm serious. The circumstances that led you here were your own doing. And you don't just have a puppet, you've got a permanent best friend."

"You're gay."

"Yeah, yeah. Painting's done."

She stepped back partially to give him space (but mostly in case she needed to make a quick getaway) and he craned his neck to get a good look at the front of his sling to reveal—

"—A clown?!"

Anna burst into obnoxious laughter. It was a clown with the trademark red mouth and nose, white face and buck teeth, and honestly looked a little like Olaf. Instead of being angry and clobbering her with his ridiculous-looking cast, Kristoff too began to laugh. It was a big belly laugh that was loud enough to garner the attention of most everyone in the room, and infectious enough to have others join in, including Elsa, who hid her little laughter behind a hand. Anna locked eyes with her and _immediately_ Elsa whipped her gaze elsewhere before Anna could even wave at her.

While Kristoff was busy showing off his newly-stylish cast sling, Anna made her way over to Elsa. She had a good moment with Kristoff and so maybe, just maybe she could have thirty seconds of courage to get to the bottom of this.

And maybe she'd actually be able to talk to her crush without becoming a puddle of gay.

"Hey, Elsa!" Anna slowed down and tried real hard not to pant from the very short jog.

"Oh, hi."

"So..." _Gotta get into this casually._

"So...?"

"So uh, why do I get the feeling you're avoiding me?" Well, so much for casual.

If Elsa was shocked by Anna's bluntness, her face hid it well.

Under Anna's bluntness, she turned away and hugged her midsection "I feel like I really messed things up. I could've hurt you." The last part was kind of quiet and Anna had to search her memories to figure out what the heck Elsa was talking about.

"On that first night? No, everything was fine! It worked out well, anyway. I've got this sweet gig now, thanks to you!"

"Thanks to me." Elsa was straight up talking to the floor now, her arms wrapped so tightly around her petite frame. Anna moved in closer.

"Oh Elsa, what happened wasn't your fault. The stage equipment gave way!"

"Right. The stage equipment..."

That onstage confidence must be an air that she puts on for the performance. All Anna can see was this mouse shrinking into herself and shying away from her. She started to put her hand on Elsa's shoulder, but then thought better of it and retracted her hand.

"I don't blame you for what happened. But if you don't believe me, then fine. I forgive you for the whole thing that wasn't your fault. I'm right here."

Anna gave what she'd hoped was an encouraging smile and not a deranged one. And Elsa finally, finally looked up. Those baby blues still held some sadness in them but—

"Okay."

"Okay?"

Elsa nodded. Then her eyes narrowed and she got a goofy look on her face. "Don't you have some set design to work on? Wouldn't want you to slack off on this _sweet gig_ that I got you."

"Yeah, yeah." She bit her lip and went to go back to her job, when Elsa's voice brought her back once more.

"Hey Anna?" Elsa started to say, waiting for Anna to fully turn around before saying, "thank you."

Anna nodded and smiled all the way back to the set piece while trying not to scream because _holy shit_ they had a real conversation! As she crouched down to get back to painting, she just missed avoiding Kristoff's retaliation as he painted right onto the back of her shirt.


End file.
